ws, welcome to the forum. You know that since you're not in it for the honey that you'll probably end up making some record-breaking honey crops, don't ya? ...while the rest of us struggle to squeeze a pint from our hives. :-D

Ed

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www.beeweather.comAmerican blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world. 320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror". Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA. But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

Don't worry most of it will come back to you, even beekeeping has changed some in the last ten years. Don't freel bad about asking for help in here , you can get some good , some bad . Just ask and weed out the rest. welcome from another NC beekeeper. JPP.

My packages will be here on the 22nd and I still have lots to do. Tho all the boxes and frames are assembled, I have yet to install the eyelets, wires and foundation which I should be able to do in a couple of days.

Today was spent building some stands for the hives to sit on and a platform made of 2 x 8's which will sit on cinder blocks which I hope will keep the hives off the ground and high enough for this old back. Then got all painted.

I have a nice place picked out in the pasture, up against the south east side of a barn which should block the wind pretty good which will be fenced in with a gate.

So, I feel comfortable in that all seems to be going pretty good so something is wrong!!

I have been reading some of these other posts and it appears that I have found the right place to hang out as there seems to be a good number of knowledgeable bee keepers hanging out here. Looking forward to the following months.

Another question for any NC bee keepers - ae we suppose to register out hives with the county?

Those little chinese screwdriver sets that have from several to a dozen little screwdrivers in them have one or two screwdrivers that are good for inserting the eyelets. I can load up eight eyelets on the little screwdriver that I use that takes care of two of my mediums. I tried using the little tool you get from the beekeeping stores that is simply a metal rod with the tip machined down to size but I guess mine wasn't finished out well and the eyelets would get stuck on it (even after polishing it down). The screwdriver works great!

I bought the little wire dispenser from Kelleys, it makes life much easier when wiring. I nailed mine down to a 1x8 board and nailed in the frame-holder nails (which help with tension) about a foot on down the board. This setup makes wiring much easier for me and is a simple setup.

Foundation....I use a piece of plywood glued to another piece. Top piece is smaller and cut to the size of the interior of my frames (all medium). This lets frame and foundation rest on wires. I use an old, rusty battery charger to heat my wires up...just a touch or two does it. I tried the small wall warts (several of them) to start with but they simply did not work for me, others may have had better results. I'm not sure how the newer "smart" chargers work being as I've only used this old one...maybe yard sales or Goodwill stores?

Against the barn...did you leave room to come up behind the hives rather than having to walk in front of them in the bees flight paths?

Best wishes, sounds like you're having fun already! :)Ed

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www.beeweather.comAmerican blood spilled to protect the freedom and peace of people all over the world. 320,000 USA casualties in WWI, 1,076,000 USA casualties in WWII, 128,000 USA casualties in the Korean War, 211,000 casualties in the Vietnam "conflict", 57,000 USA casualties in "War on Terror". Benghazi, Libya, 13 USA casualties. These figures don't include 70,000 MIA. But, the leaders of one political party of the United States of America continue to make the statement..."What difference does it make?".

"We can't expect the American People to jump from Capitalism to Communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of Socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have Communism."..."The press is our chief ideological weapon." - Nikita Khrushchev

Neat idea. I never thought of that. However, if it's cut comb you want, they do make a box especially set up for that with the dividers, etc, right down to the covers for the end product. At an extras cost to be true, however, as it is with all bee keeping equipment, once you get past the initial cost it's all gravy.

As a retail item, I'm not sure how well cut comb would be received with today's crowd.

Perhaps we have some more experienced bee keepers out there that could shed some light on this.

When talking about cutting the comb I was referring to maybe Queen cells, cutting out wax moths or just cutting out bad sections.Hopefully by the time you need to cut the bees will have connected the comb on all sides and the fishing line isn't needed anymore.

As to the Ross rounds I have heard of them going for as much as $10 to $12 a round.

David

PS. Seems like I saw a video where they were putting cut comb in squares cases like the ross rounds. So the finished product is the same.

Ok, yesterday I took the bee boxes out to the bee yard and got them all set up so that today when I got back with the bees it was a simple chore of getting them uncrated and into their new homes.

About an hour afterwards I took a stroll out thee to just take a look - some of the bees are have returned to the shipping boxes - don't understand that. One hive has a bunch of bees clustered over and around the reduced entrance.

Other than these two issues, all seems to be in proper order.

The uncrateing went fine until one of the little ladies apparently thought I looked a bit lonely in that veil and decided to join me. A quick trip outside the bee yard and a few yards away I removed the veil and flushed her out.

Other than that incident, all went well. I made it a point to maintain a constant monologue in event theior memory is better than mine.